Jon Gray, true to his bold instincts—if not his understated name or appearance—has built a career on audacious moves. Last week, the American financier made headlines with a staggering $125 million donation to Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Medicine, the largest in the institution’s history and among the most significant ever in Israeli academia.
Gray’s name first became widely known for another outsized bet: the $26 billion acquisition of Hilton Hotels just before the 2008 financial crisis. Initially celebrated, the deal was quickly derided as ill-timed. But Gray ultimately proved the skeptics wrong, exiting the investment with a $14 billion profit—an outcome Wall Street insiders still refer to as one of the best trades ever. Most of the gains went to Blackstone, the private equity giant where Gray has worked since age 22, though he too shared in the windfall.
Now 55, Gray has steadily ascended the upper ranks of American finance. In 2024, he earned $247 million in compensation, a combination of salary and dividends. As Blackstone’s president and chief operating officer, he is widely viewed as the heir apparent to CEO Stephen Schwarzman, the firm’s co-founder and public face—and a titan of Wall Street capitalism nostalgically embraced by former President Donald Trump.
Blackstone today manages more than $1 trillion, making it the world’s largest alternative asset manager. Gray is credited with founding its real estate division, which now accounts for roughly a third of its assets under management. His donation to Tel Aviv University is being hailed not only for its size but for its symbolic weight. Fundraising insiders believe Gray’s gift could spark a wave of philanthropic giving from Jewish donors inspired by his and Schwarzman’s example—those eager to support Israel’s recovery after October 7, while also seeing their names inscribed on the facades of academic buildings.
For Tel Aviv University, the donation places it in the company of elite global institutions. In 2019, Schwarzman gave £150 million to Oxford University, following a $350 million gift to MIT the year before.
Gray visited Israel last Thursday for a brief 36-hour trip with his wife, Mindy—who oversees the family’s philanthropic activities—one of their four daughters, and a rabbi who regularly accompanies them. During the visit, he unveiled the commemorative plaque alongside the President of Israel Isaac Herzog at the Faculty of Medicine.
Which decision is easier: donating $125 million of your personal wealth, or entering into a multi-billion dollar deal with Blackstone?
“I always say that on my tombstone, it won’t say ‘generated high net returns for his customers’,” Gray said with a smile in an interview with Calcalist. “But on the other hand, unless we do that, unless we do a great job, then we don’t have these kinds of opportunities to make a difference. So we remain committed to delivering for our customers at Blackstone. And then Mindy and I remain committed to trying to figure out how we can have an impact and make a difference and we certainly have a huge amount of sympathy for the people of Israel and we just wanted to show up and say ‘we support you and we want to help you’.”
For Gray, this is his first major donation to Israel. However, he previously made headlines for donating $100 million to support research into cancers linked to the BRCA gene, which is prevalent among Jewish women. The gift was made after Mindy’s sister died of ovarian cancer at the age of 44.
What motivated you to make this donation now, and why specifically to the Faculty of Medicine? Israel is typically better known—and receives more philanthropic attention—for its work in computing and technology.
“I think it started after October 7th. I think we, like a lot of Jews in the world, were deeply concerned about what had happened here and we initially responded with some the emergency support to some of the groups and then me and Mindy and Dana our foundation director were we’re thinking about how we could have a broader impact and we met with a number of organizations. When we met with Tel Aviv University President Ariel Porat and we started listening about Tel Aviv University it dawned on us this could be a really interesting way to connect what we do around access to education supporting underprivileged kids. We could do something at scale that tied to what we did back in the U.S.
“We were here in February and we had a terrific visit with a bunch of the faculty and the students. We came away with a clear sense that there was a need for more housing. There was a shortage of doctors. So, if we could help with housing and lab space and scholarships, we could really have an impact in scale.”
Gray promises that everything will move forward quickly, with construction of new student dormitories set to begin soon. The Faculty of Medicine building—now visibly outdated alongside the new high-tech facilities that have sprung up around it in recent years at Tel Aviv University—will be renovated, and its laboratories will be upgraded.
This donation is a private initiative. Still, does it complicate things for you as “Jon Gray, President of Blackstone,” at a time when global public opinion toward Israel is particularly sensitive?
“It’s a good question. I think ultimately to me it’s about doing the right thing and I I see it as pretty hard to criticize supporting the training of doctors and other medical professionals and we’re doing it in a way that supports the whole community. We have a target here of doubling the number of Arab-Israeli doctors as well. I think no one would dispute that in the region Israel is in, there’s a need for healing and supporting that healing process is a good thing.”
At the end of the day, you’re also a businessman. One of the major concerns in Israel is a return to a past dynamic in which Jews abroad donated generously, but chose not to invest directly in local businesses. How do you respond to that?
“Not in the case of Blackstone. It was 12 months ago that we made a major investment in a software company Priority Software. So I think these two things, as different as they are, both speak to the long-term viability of Israel and its health. And on the business side, we’re looking for great companies and great founders and people we can back and invest capital. On the philanthropic side, we’re looking for great organizations who’ve got a real mission and purpose. And so I see these things as complementary to each other.”
Let’s turn to investments on a global level. April’s market declines appear to have reversed. In your view, is the worst behind us, or is this just a temporary reprieve?
“I think you want to step back and recognize that this tariff diplomacy will settle at some point. There will be some deals with some countries to start. It feels like the UK is coming soon and potentially Japan, Korea, India. There will be negotiations and each time those happen, I think it’ll be calming for the markets.But we may see a bit of a slowdown because the incremental cost to business is particularly manufacturers and retailers. So, we could see some slowing, but my long-term view is we’ll get through this. And the faster they make some of these deals sort of the better for the global economy.
“I think what’s really the most important thing is the longer term. What’s going to happen with technology, innovation, AI. It’s one of the reasons why I think Israel is so well positioned because I think the big story and the focus right now is on the tariffs and what it’s doing to markets and trade and so forth. But I do think that gets settled. I think really the main event is technology and AI and we’ll get back to focusing on that in 6-12 months from now.”
Gray is known in the United States as a staunch Democrat and a major campaign donor. Surprisingly, however, during Trump’s previous term, he was offered the position of Treasury Secretary—a role he declined, according to U.S. media reports at the time. Steve Mnuchin was subsequently appointed to the post, and Gray returned to business as usual. In the most recent presidential race, he even hosted a fundraising event for Joe Biden.
So far, Blackstone has largely refrained from investing directly in tech companies at the forefront of the AI revolution, particularly those building foundational language models. Why is that?
“With LLMs it’s hard to know exactly who’s going to win. These are incredible companies and their technology is changing the world, but we have focused a little more on the infrastructure itself, sort of the picks and shovels supporting this revolution. I think over time there may be more opportunities.
“We’re the biggest investor in the world in data centers, but we’re also very big investors in energy and power which supports the data centers. We’ve invested in a bunch of companies in and around the AI ecosystem. We’re also trying to use this AI technology in our companies to try to make them better at what they do. It still feels like it’s very early days in AI.”
What are Blackstone’s preferred investment areas for the coming year?
“I think what’s most interesting is the applications that will sit on top of the LLMs. Then of course the data centers and the support and the infrastructure that’s going to allow this to happen. But I think all our lives are going to be impacted both virtually in terms of almost everything we do and then ultimately physically with robots and so forth. So I think investing in around that ecosystem makes a lot of sense.
“Geographically, I would say both India and Japan are places we like a lot for different reasons.”
And does the emerging conflict between India and Pakistan raise new concerns for your global investment outlook?
“I think a lot of these things are sort of the news of the day. My guess is ultimately although that’s a very unfortunate situation there’ll be a resolution and I would say as an investor taking a long-term view is the most important thing. To not think about just next month, three months, or six months. But ask whether over a longer period of time does India have a very powerful growth trajectory? The answer we believe is yes.”
Looking beyond the current war, how do you envision Israel five years from now?
“We wouldn’t invest such a large sum of money here if we weren’t very positive about Israel. I think the most positive thing we’ve seen in the region has been the number of Arab states that were supportive of Israel when the missiles from Iran came and those states are also very interested in engaging in capitalism and growth and domestic investment there. I think the whole region is going to be on a very high growth trajectory and you know obviously this situation has to be resolved, but I think once we get through that we have a lot of optimism. We both have a lot of optimism about this country and that’s certainly reflective of this philanthropic decision, but also at Blackstone we have the same kind of optimism that the business environment here will really thrive. As an investor you have to deploy capital before the all clear sign and that’s really what we are doing today here with our team in the country.”
Blackstone opened an official representative office in Israel in 2021. Headed by Yifat Oron, the local team has invested in a number of high-tech companies, including Wiz, Cloudinary, Stampli, and Mitiga. Its largest Israeli deal to date was the acquisition of Priority. In another high-profile move, a Blackstone portfolio company focused on content creation acquired the production firm of Fauda creators Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff for $50 million several years ago.
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